Citation practice provides justification for arguments and allows a writer to indicate a rhetorical gap for her/his research and adopt a tone of authority. Claims must be supported with evidence, and writers must demonstrate an understanding of approaches and knowledge in their fields of specialisation, in order to persuade the examiners that the thesis is worthy of the award of a doctorate (Thompson, 2005b). Candidates need to keep the adequate interpersonal relationship with the immediate audience (the examiners). They have to evaluate the previous research in an area of study and to be respectful with previous claims from authorities in the disciplines. They also need to position themselves in relation to other disciplinary members and highlight their individual claims. This paper investigates contrastively how interactional resources of citation and, in particular reporting verbs, are deployed in the literature review chapters of PhD theses written in English and in Spanish. KEYWORDS:Citation practice, reporting verbs, academic writing, PhD theses, evaluation, stance, variation, cross-language study RESUMEN El uso de citas y referencias proporciona una justificación para la argumentación y permite al académico identificar un hueco o espacio retórico donde situar su investigación y adoptar cierto tono de autoridad. Las hipótesis o afirmaciones científicas deben apoyarse en evidencias, y los investigadores deben demostrar un buen conocimiento de los enfoques de su campo de especialización, para así persuadir a los miembros del tribunal examinador de la tesis de que ésta es digna de merecer el doctorado (Thompson, 2005b). Los doctorandos necesitan mantener una relación interpersonal apropiada con su audiencia (el tribunal examinador). Asimismo, necesitan evaluar la literatura de su área de estudio y ser respetuosos con las afirmaciones sobre investigaciones previas de autoridades de la disciplina. Necesitan adoptar una postura ante los miembros de la comunidad científica a la vez que enfatizan sus propias afirmaciones. En este trabajo se lleva a cabo un estudio contrastivo sobre el uso de las citas como recursos interactivos y, en particular, el uso de los verbos introductorios en los capítulos que tratan la revisión de la literatura en tesis doctorales en inglés y en español.

The main objective of the activity presented in this paper is to practise the competence called effective communication. The

This paper investigates contrastively how politeness strategies that involve reporting verbs are deployed in the Literature Review (LR) chapters of PhD theses written in English and in Spanish. It analyses a comparable corpus of 20 theses-10 in English and 10 in Spanish-in computer science. It focuses on uses of reporting structures realised through integral and nonintegral citations of other texts (Hyland 1999). The research design is based on the model proposed by Thompson and Ye (1991), who distinguished three categories of reporting verbs according to the process they perform: textual, mental and research verbs, and analysed the evaluative potential of verbal processes whose responsibility is ascribed either to the reviewed author or to the reporting writer. We also took as a reference the politeness model offered by Brown & Levinson (1987) to study the presence of specific face-redressive politeness means in the double-voiced dialogue which is established in the corpus of LRs. Data show that English writers show personal commitment and tentativeness, while Spanish writers tend to mask individual voices and avoid personal confrontation.

This study investigates the predominant moves and move patterns used in the separate final conclusion chapters of 48 PhD theses of computer science at a UK university. The focus is on the most salient connections of steps in the review of the study (Move 1) with steps for the consolidation of research space (Move 2). The most common combinations relate (1) a summary of the thesis work to the product and the evaluation of the product, (2) the purpose, thesis statement or hypothesis to the findings or results, (3) the research questions to the methodology, product or claim, (4) a problem or need to a specific methodology, a new product and/or a claim, and (5) a summary of the work done in each thesis chapter to the findings and claims. Some findings are specific of the field of computer science. The study has pedagogical implications for courses of English for Academic Purposes (EAP).